Sensex crosses 26K mark, Nifty hits new high ahead of Budget

The benchmark Sensex created history today by closing above the 26,000 mark for the first time on hopes of growth-oriented policy announcements in the maiden Budget of Narendra Modi government.
Besides, a rally in technology stocks, led by Infosys, which will kick-start the earnings season for the April-June quarter later this week, also buoyed the sentiments, traders said.
The 30-share BSE index after commencing the session above the historic 26,000 mark, climbed to touch a new intra-day record high high of 26,123.55. It finally settled 138.02 points, or 0.53 per cent higher, at a new closing peak of 26,100.08. The gauge has now surpassed its previous closing high of 25,962.06 on Friday.

The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 35.55 points, or 0.46 per cent, to close at a new peak of 7,787.15, breaching previous record closing high of 7,751.60 on Friday. During the session, it touched a lieftime high of 7,792.00, surpassing previous of 7,758.00 reached on Friday.
An HSBC survey that said manufacturing and services sectors in India expanded at a faster pace than China during June, too had a positive impact on sentiments, traders added.
"Pre-budget rally has lifted the indices to new highs", said Deepak Pahwa, a Delhi-based stock broker.

Investors have been accumulating blue-chip stocks on hopes that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on July 10 in the Budget would announce industry-friendly measures to revive the country's economy that is growing at near the slowest pace in a decade. Last week, Sensex jumped 862.14 points.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth a net Rs 943.19 crore last Friday.
Among sectoral indices, the BSE IT index gained the most and surged 2.63 per cent as Infosys, TCS, Wipro gained in 1.86-3.23 per cent range amid weakening of the rupee.
The BSE Teck index emerged the second best performer by rising 2.16 per cent, followed by Power index (1.12 per cent) and Healthcare (0.80 per cent).
However, the BSE Oil and gas index ended 0.91 per cent lower due to profit-taking in RIL, ONGC and GAIL. Banking index was down by 1.21 per cent and Realty index by 0.14 per cent.